Emerald Concrete
by RemorsefulGalaxies
Summary: The faint luminescent glow of his spectral body reflected off the dingy trash cans, making it seem to shine a little more, enough to see the reflection of a battered, beaten ghost who lay defeated in a cold alleyway. Revelation fic. Rated for blood. R and R please
1. Chapter 1

_hng_

_there's probably a bunch of these revelation things lying around here so I wanted to do one myself_

_no harm in that right?_

_most likely will end up multi-chaptered. _

**_Disclaimer: Nope sorry still don't own it_**

* * *

It was dark. It was probably well past ten.

No _duh. _It was obviously past ten. There wasn't anything nearby to indicate the current time, but it must have been at least an hour and a half since he _should have _arrived home.

And by the looks of it, he'll be much, much later coming home.

If at all.

...

The night's battle had been particularly rough, long, and painful. The grueling showdown with the "Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter" had ended with one ghost locked away in the thermos with the rest of the day's adversaries, and an injured ghost boy who suddenly lost the strength to fly.

Danny had sensed the oncoming falter in his flight, and attempted to try and speed closer to the building with the unmistakable Ops Center mounted on the roof, obvious as anything. The only thing he had succeeded in, however, was a rather startling drop in energy and a wobbling glide into the deserted sidewalk concrete. The landing jarred at a particularly painful spot on his side, a whimper escaping him. He lay on the sidewalk for a moment, the cold stone draining away the minimal body heat that was supplied by his existing human half. The Fenton thermos was still held loosely in a weak white glove, silent despite the ghost enemies currently crammed inside.

So tired. So, so tired.

Fentonworks was still a ways away by foot, the top of the tall and obvious building visible over the roofs of the other buildings that seperated Danny from his home. Sighing heavily, the ghost boy rose to his feet, unsteadily, staring at the home he could have been at already. His right hand painfully gripped at his injured left side, and the other hand still held the thermos. _Looks like...I better start walking..._he thought grimly, pulling his hand away from his side as he felt something wet seep into his glove.

Green fluid clung to the white gloved hand, dripping off his fingertips. Danny winced, glancing down at the expanding green spot on his side. Pain still throbbed intensely through his system, picking up severity and clouding his eyes for a moment. Danny clutched the wound again, trying to push forward toward home and ignore the injury that would most likely be reduced to a scratch come tomorrow morning.

Such was not the case, as a bout of dizziness and the loss of strength in his legs caught him and sent him to his knees with a soft groan of pain. With an irritated grunt, Danny tried to force himself back to his feet, but the needed limbs merely tingled in response and shook when he attempted to shift weight onto them. Sighing, he lowered back to his knees and remained there, still holding the wound as it began to stain the concrete below with glowing green ectoplasm.

_C-Can't walk..._

_Can't fly... _

He stared numbly at the rooftops of the building at at his home in the distance, the silence of the currently deserted street smothering the world like a heavy blanket. A chill wind picked up, snaking by the boy's body and forcing a shiver out of him. Danny blinked. _What is this...? Ghosts...don't get cold..._

He was still unable to stand, even after the brief rest, and his strength was still gradually draining away. The boy bit his lip and cursed under his breath, not yet attempting to move and aggravate the wound on his side. He knew he couldn't sit there all night, he'd be seen at some point. Or he'd end up passing out and changing back...and right now, changing back wasn't something he was keen to doing right this moment.

The wound, although he hadn't looked at it properly yet, was severe and Danny feared that changing into a weaker form would essentially kill him, especially now that the green blood was still flowing from it and coloring the concrete an eerie emerald. If he stayed in ghost form, at least for a little while longer, he believed he might be able to have it heal quick enough to be non-lethal to his human form to handle. So he assumed, anyway.

Even now, the pain from the injury was burning right through his body, hot bolts of agony speeding through his veins and specking his vision with darkness. His breathing became heavy, labored, and his form began shaking...

Dammit, there was no way he was going to make it home any time soon, not like this...

The ghost boy stared longingly back at his home, preferring to be there getting reprimanded for missing curfew than kneeling on the sidewalk, weakening and bleeding out pitifully. He most likely won't be seeing that home tonight, and his absence from coming home at all would definitely strike panic into his family, unless they assumed he had gone to one of his friends' houses overnight. Unlikely, however, since it wasn't the norm for him to simply up and vanish for the night, without mention. Would they come looking for him? Would they maybe, just maybe, find him here? And if they got here...would they find their most hated ghost enemy, or their son, bleeding and weakening on the streets?

Danny gave a sharp intake of breath as a pulse of hot pain blazed his nerves, causing him to sink toward the ground. Desperately, he looked about his scenery for an adept place to shelter for the night, besides the houses of this unfamiliar neighborhood. The only thing that could offer a temporary refuge for an unwanted and injured ghost was the narrow alley on his left, lined with gleaming silver trash cans and garbage.

Biting his lip, the halfa made one last attempt to stand. The effort was in vain, however, as his weak legs gave out and allowed him to fall into the brick wall of the building next to the alley. Groaning, he dropped back to his knees, grimly eyeing the fresh green smear left on the faded red brick wall. The boy dropped his hands to the ground, leaving him with no choice but to crawl in a rather undignified limping gait to the rubbish-ridden sanctuary. His crawling became dragging, slow and pathetic like an injured animal dragging itself to safety to lay down and die. A rumbling sounded from above, from the roiling black smudges that blocked out the stars and moon, and a single drop fell.

Danny pulled his nearly-useless body behind a line of partially-rusted trash cans, hidden from sight from the outside of the alley but not shielding him from the falling rain. He leaned his trembling form into the wall, holding the thermos-his only means of defense now-close to his chest. His right hand lowered shakily toward the source of the emerald blossom that darkly stained his suit, pulling at the frayed and damaged fabric around the area. The slice in the suit gave view to the injury beneath: a deep gash that wound with the curve of his torso, from navel to spine, and ran deep into his pale flesh. The wound was still pumping ectoplasm, already beginning to pool under his body, and Danny grimaced as he pressed his hand back onto the slice, as if that only could stifle the bleeding. _Yeesh...was Skulker trying to cut me in half or something?!_ Dumb question, he most likely intended that. The battle had also left him with various scratches and bruises on his face and arms as well, but the minor injuries were ignored in favor of the giant gash that was steadily leaking away his energy and life...half-life...with each passing minute.

For that moment, as raindrops fell more heavily and landed with frozen stings on his hurting body, a pang of terror struck in his chest like a sudden thunderclap. He was bleeding so much...and there was virtually no way to stop it, nothing nearby that he considered any source of help or aid. _He was going to die in this alley. _He was going to bleed out, bleed all the rest of his life away...and there would be nothing. He might never see his home again, and the cold of the alley loomed around him almost ominously, unwelcoming, alien, unfamiliar.

Danny leaned into the wall, slightly curling up against the cold solid brick, as if he could just shrink into himself. Shrink away from the pain and the cold and the helplessness...He almost longed for the comfort of unconsciousness and the relief of sleep...but that would only bring death quicker, as his human self would hardly last much longer with this injury.

The thermos was still held with as much strength as he could bear and held close, as if it were his last tether keeping him in a sense of security...a false one most likely, but still. The faint luminescent glow of his spectral body reflected off the dingy trash cans, making it seem to shine a little more, enough to see the reflection of a battered, beaten ghost who lay defeated in a cold alleyway.

_To be continued..._

* * *

**_It's 2AM here, boy I hope I didn't botch anything up with this first chapter...XP_**


	2. Chapter 2

_Where was he? It was past midnight...!_

Irritance turned to worry and then to near panic as the minutes ticked by, a missed curfew turning into a missing child case.

The Fentons had made phone calls to Sam and Tucker's houses, only to hear that they didn't have a clue where Danny was either. Panicked worrying and waiting soon turned into a gathering of ecto-energy arms and both parents heading for the door.

Jazz persisted in going with them, but was told to remain at home in case he still returned. Reluctantly, the older sister complied and watched as Jack and Maddie Fenton dashed into the streets and practically armed to the teeth with blasters and bazookas. Their first assumption, expectedly, was that a ghost had something to do with Danny's disappearance...ironically the right answer this time but in a different manner. Jazz could only hope fervently that Danny wasn't still being held up by ghosts, by the time her parents got there to shoot his ghost self out of the sky.

The redhead watched the the rain hit the windows and darken the streets absently, as the silhouettes of her parents faded from view.

What a fitting scene for the mood.

* * *

Maddie sped down the sidewalk, a hand grasping a small ecto-energy pistol and her eyes searching the dulled sky for any sign of a figure flying across it. She scanned nearby alleys on the streets for dark shadows darting through them. Her adrenaline was up, trying to search and pick out anything that could vaguely resemble a fourteen-year-old boy, or someone responsible for his disappearance. She was worked up enough to the point that if she even saw a stray ghost this evening, she'd blast it to smithereens on the spot.

Her boy, her baby was missing...and if ghosts were the cause, they would pay dearly for it.

Time trickled by as the two worried parents searched street after street, venturing deeper into the suburban area and arriving in a neighborhood well-distanced from the house. There, the two paused in the streets, rain still coming down heavily on them and the stone around them.

Maddie stared up at Jack somberly, and he returned her gaze, "I know it's worrying, Mads but...we haven't seen hide or hair of a ghost or Danny so far..."

"Well we'll keep looking. I'm not going home until I get my boy back..." Maddie replied with a hard tone, her grip tightening on her pistol, "Or if I find the ghost who knows what happened to him..." she growled in a lower tone, turning to face the nearly identical brick buildings that lined the empty street

She sighed, walking up the sidewalk with a horrible, hollow feeling expanding with each unsuccessful minute that passed. Every minute he was missing...he wasn't safe at home...

Where was he?

_Where was he?_

The youngest Fenton was out and alone in the cold rainy night, somewhere... something had kept him from coming home besides whatever usually made him miss curfew. Kidnapping? Ghost attack? An accident? All three? Her boy may not even be alive right now, as long as he was gone the possibility remained...

"_Danny!_" Maddie cried out desperately, her pace speeding up with Jack close behind. Several more calls...but to no avail. No black-haired boy appeared in reply, no ghost flew into the open...no movement whatsoever.

Maddie sighed, hands shaking in fear for her missing son, for his sake. If only there was some reply, some kind of clue or _something _that would herald the location of her son...someone...something...anything...

"Maddie look!"

As if on cue to her thoughts, Jack's voice sounded from a ways in front of her. He must have passed her while they were walking, and now he was standing over something on the ground, gesturing at it importantly. Maddie glanced at the wet concrete, at first seeing nothing but making out a very faint glow on a small patch of the ground, visible only barely in the moonless night. The rain had cleared most of it away, but there was no mistaking it to the eye of an experienced ghost hunter.

Ectoplasm.

She looked up, seeing more faint green glows on the walls of the building not five feet away from the ground specimen. Smudged against the brick, the ectoplasm trail was smeared from a relatively short height into the ground, as if something had slipped down the wall and left the trail. It was less faded than the spot on the ground, which had been continuously pounded and diluted by the rainfall. Maddie felt a sliver of hope grow within. Even if the seemingly recent traces of ectoplasm did not guarantee any kind of relation between her son's disappearance and the possible presence of a ghost, it was still something to work toward, something to look to for some kind of relief, whether it be discovering their son's fate or simply blasting a ghost to pieces with vengeful intent.

Maddie glanced into the alley nearby, at first focusing at the ground for more residual ectoplasm, but instead a strange gleam off of the trashcans caught her attention. She silently motioned to Jack to approach the light anomaly, both parents drawing an ecto-weapon cautiously.

The light could only come from a ghost, a ghost who apparently had been bleeding ectoplasm all over the sidewalk and walls just nearby. A weakened ghost, a target ready to be finished off.

She and Jack drew closer to the can, slowly making their way around the barricade of trash receptacles and seeing a crumpled form come into view behind them. Maddie froze, eyes darting over the stark white hair, the black and silver suit, the iconic insignia on his chest.

It was him. Of all ghosts, it was him. Maddie almost laughed at the convenience of the whole situation.

Amity Park's famous-and also infamous-supernatural enigma, the elusive ghost kid whom the couple had targeted many times already in the past, swearing to get him and tear him apart _molecule by molecule. _

The Notorious Danny Phantom, laying there like as if discarded and left to rot, the weakness in his form clear by his position and posture. How convenient, the ghost child left for dead...or whatever was after...and left to be finished off by none other than the Fentons.

Jack gasped, raising a large bazooka and aiming it right at the immobile ghost child collapsed against the wall, "Maddie! It's the ghost punk! What luck, huh? We get to blow this spook sky-high and-"

As much as Maddie wanted to do the same, or contain him, or some other form of harm against the being she believed wholly was only a being of pure evil and ill-will...she couldn't. Not yet, anyway. Her son was still missing, and here was the ever-loathed ghost boy right in their vicinity. She gestured for Jack to lower the huge gun, just for a moment, "I want to speak to him. I'll bet this ghost might have some knowledge about our Danny..." she explained, hoping fervently that this creature would have useful information to give before they would probably obliterate him on the spot. It almost seemed like a shame...a waste to end their tenacious hounding of the ghost teen in such an easy and tedious way.

Maddie drew close to the downed Phantom, Jack watching cautiously from behind. The woman had her gun pulled, finger delicately resting on the trigger that was ready to pull at a moment's notice. Phantom didn't even twitch when she approached him, leading her to wonder if he was...perhaps sleeping? _Sleeping? Ghosts don't sleep! _she thought, edging ever closer. She was now within range to touch the subdued ghost, and her eyes studied him silently. He had to be still...well...not _alive _but functioning...She spotted a soft but uneven rise and fall of his chest, making her pause in confusion. Ghosts don't breathe...they had no lungs or life to need to do so...and yet Phantom was laboriously breathing in his daze right this moment!

She spotted the source of the ectoplasm easily next, seeing the visible tear in his suit along his side, and a dark green slice weeping the glowing green substance sluggishly. It looked as if the ghost had been trying to stop the flow of blood with only his hand, as evident by his limp right hand that rested only a few inches away from the gash. The white glove was stained green, and looked like it had slipped from its spot and rested on one of his legs, both of which were folded under his body. In his other hand was a shiny object, held loosely and close to the boy's chest, as if he were protecting it from threat.

Was that...the Fenton thermos?

It was...

Why did he have it, though? A flare of anger shot through Maddie as she jumped to the conclusion that he had stolen the device for some reason, perhaps to prevent his own containment within it. She sighed, a growl laden within it, and rather roughly nudged Phantom's shoulder with her gun, "Hey you, Phantom..." she hissed, recieving only a very weak and slow shift of his body closer to the wall in reply. She batted his shoulder with it again, "Phantom, wake up!"

A jolt ran through the smaller figure's body, his head shooting up and dazed green eyes blinking rapidly to register the scene in front of him. He instantly winced as the pain in his body came rushing back seizing his movements for a moment.

Maddie dared to edge closer, giving Phantom's face a good look. She had never been this close to the wretched specter, and was inwardly surprised she had gotten this close. She made out more cuts and scraps along his face, and a darkening spot above his right eye where something had apparently hit him-hard. His suit was torn in several places along his torso and arms, the most noticeable barely concealing his side gash. His white hair was slicked down by the rain, and hung in disheveled clumps in from of his face. His entire body was trembling, more from injury than the chill of the rainfall, no doubt. He shifted again, causing Maddie to tense her gun-toting arm, but he only seemed to press himself further into the wall, a look of fear glazing over his eyes.

Maddie was almost taken aback by how young he looked. How genuine the emotion had fallen over his demeanor and his child-like cowering. She almost felt pity for the ghost child, and yet...his display of emotion...

Fear?

No, impossible.

Ghosts don't fear anything.

They were vile and vengeful scourges from the world after living.

They had no emotions.

He was faking it. That had to be it. He may be a child but he was a ghost. Perhaps that was all that mattered.

"Cut the act, Phantom," Maddie demanded with a harsh tone, almost uncharacteristic to her usual voice, "I'm not buying your fear display, so you can just calm right down and let me ask you some things."

Phantom did not 'calm right down,' and if anything appeared more terrified at the dismissal of his 'fear display.' The ghost child stared at Maddie silently, his expression still strained with raw agony from his injury. He subconsciously covered the wound with his hand again, clenching the thermos almost protectively in his other.

Maddie narrowed her eyes threateningly, "Now first off...where the hell did you get that?" she demanded, gesturing at the ghost device the boy held in his hands.

Phantom visibly flinched at her gesture, as if he was anticipating her to strike him or something. It was odd to see the enigmatic ghost this way, cowering in the presence of his opponents rather than pulling any usual stunts or attacking...or even attempting escape. Perhaps he was too weakened to do any of that. Perhaps he was already resigned...?

Phantom lifted the thermos shakily, staring at it blankly as if he had never seen the device before. He almost met Maddie's gaze, but flinched away from it, as her eyes were threateningly hardened with quiet fury, "I...I was..." he spoke, his voice dry and diminished to nearly a feeble whisper, "I was..."

"_You were what?_" Came the harsh prompt, to which Phantom cringed reflexively,

"C-Catching...catching ghosts..." came the thin voiced reply, followed by nothing but the sound of rain hitting the concrete.

_He's really stressing the fear act tonight..._Maddie thought irritably, frowning at the ghost boy's uncharacteristic cowardly behavior. Then again, he was hardly a foot away from a pair of hunters heavily armed with things that specialized in doing harm to ghosts. A pair of hunters who could probably just pull their guns on him and annihilate him right then and there without a thought.

"Catching ghosts?" Jack scoffed from his position, "A _ghost _catching other _ghosts?_ Do you expect us to believe such nonsense?"

Phantom seemed to wither, his eyes downcast with fading hope of escape or release. He certainly looked resigned now. The ghost child had been reduced to feeble tatters on the cold ground of an alley, his blood staining him and the ground around him. He probably believed he would be eliminated right then and there once these questions were answered, once the hunters had lost their interest in him. He probably knew he wasn't leaving this alley in a complete state, all in one piece, unscathed, tonight.

_He was right_, Maddie thought.


	3. Chapter 3

_Catching ghosts?_

"Why do you think we should believe that?" Maddie growled down a the ghost boy, her weapon still threateningly held to raise at a moment's notice.

Danny shook his head, well aware that his chances of survival were diminishing fast as his ghost-loathing parents loomed over him. He still held the thermos loosely in hand, gaze adverted from his mother who kneeled in front of him.

_Just don't...don't tick them off...don't do anything that will make them reduce you to a charred spot on the ground..._he thought morosely, placing the thermos down and pushing it in Maddie's direction, indicating for her to take it back, no harm done...

At the gesture, his mother stiffened and gripped her pistol again, but loosened as she realized he had only offered the thermos back.

_What a stupid idea..._Danny suddenly thought, mentally face-palming at the action. He watched with alarm as his mother took the thermos, holding it in her hands for a moment and examining it silently, as if she were studying an unburied artifact. He expected her to suddenly turn on him, sucking him into the thermos and later releasing him into God-knows-where...he shuddered at the memory of being trapped for hours on end inside of the metal device, after an accident with his sister that felt so long ago.

She didn't, probably not yet, and set the device down beside her. She set her steely gaze on him, jaw set sternly, "Alright Phantom, you were out 'catching ghosts,' as you say. Now we want to know, exactly, what have you done with our son, Danny?"

The hybrid shook his head, searching his frazzled mind for some kind of excuse or other to give, as he knew only replying with a 'sorry don't know' wouldn't suffice for the ghost hunters.

He knew they must be frightened for his-his human half-quite dearly, and were most likely well convinced a ghost or other threatening being (probably a ghost in their minds) had done something to cause Danny Fenton to go missing. He wasn't sure how to explain, how to lie to get them to lower their weapons and leave him be again. If he claimed to know where he was, in order to send them running somewhere else so he could escape, who's to say it would even play out that smoothly? They would most likely drag him off with them, and if not...did he even have the strength to get away if they left? He was dimly aware of the pain numbly pulsing through him, rendering him powerless and feeling heavier than stone. The gash would still be there, too, and if his parents couldn't put the pieces together for that...he'd end up dying from the severity of the wound.

He was stuck here, pinned against a cold alley wall and drenched in rain and green blood, numbly anticipating the almost certain death that would befall him. He wished it didn't have to end this way...

At the hands of his own parents.

And then...once the deed was done...Danny Fenton would never be found again.

The almost certain possibilities glaring at him in the face seeped into him with a horrible, almost overwhelming dread that threatened to drown him. _There was no way out this time. He was dead, a lost cause. Dead!_

His mother hadn't moved at all during the span of silence that followed her question. She and his father was still watching him steadily.

The halfa winced. At this point...would any answer he gave matter? They wouldn't believe him anyway. Sighing, he replied, "I...I don't know..." in a thin and pained voice.

No response, his mother's gaze was pressing.

Danny shook his head again, "I...I was attacked by another g-ghost...I didn't see your son...I promise..." he added feebly, still shaking as the rain continued to fall on his already soaked black suit. Pain ruled his body, and his breath suddenly hitched, feeling overwhelmed by the fiery agony that was slowly taking over.

Maddie drew closer, startling him, and suddenly a fistful of his shirt collar was grabbed and his body yanked forward painfully. Danny gave a pained yelp as it aggravated the slice on his side roughly. His green eyes were forced to stare into furious violet ones, and a hiss sounded from the woman, "Don't think we're letting you off that easily, ghost. Our son goes missing, and you turn up. _You know something, and you're going to tell us._"

"P-please...I really don't...I promise..." Danny murmured, alarm and panic beginning to stir in his chest as he realized his parents were only growing angrier toward him.

"Like the word of a ghost means anything!" his mother snarled, "Especially yours, ghost punk."

Danny shivered like a leaf in her iron grip, subconsciously moving his hands to grab his mother's wrist defensively. At his touch, Maddie recoiled and suddenly struck the side of the gun against his head sharply. His vision flashed white with the force of the hit, forcing a strangled cry of pain from him and causing him to topple onto his side.

"You listen to me ghost...!" she hissed, and Danny despite the pain, he was surprised to hear a sob caught in her threat, "I...I just want my son back! I know you know something, anything! If you don't tell me, you despicable heap of ectoplasm, I'll _destroy every last particle of you._" Tears were beginning to stream down her face, and Danny saw his father run to her side, all the while leveling an ecto-bazooka in his direction.

_Dammit, dammit...there's...really no way out of this...! _Danny thought painfully, still crumpled on his side from the blow and hadn't bothered to do much but shift to get the weight off of his wound. The throb of the hit on the left side of his head pulsed an aching pain through his skull. He knew his parents were acting out of fear for him, for his human half, and Phantom probably posed as a tiny glimmer of dark hope, or at least something to take out the pain and stress on as a means of relief. Despite the pain crushing his form and the freezing chills reaching deep into his core, he didn't blame them one bit.

Was there really no option of survival? No, there had to be one. Somehow, there had to exist some kind of way to evade the death that awaited him. The options dwindled, leaving only one possible way of escape.

Even though it didn't by any means ensure any chance of surviving his injuries by any means...it almost seemed like the most...reasonable thing to do...it would at least let his parents know he wasn't still missing, even if it left his life hanging by a thread. And if there was a way to pull through that ordeal...well...he just wasn't sure what his parents would do next.

_Their son, the half ghost they had tried so many times before to destroy._

Danny raised his head, bravely meeting his parent's furious eyes. His arms shook as they held him part of the way up, before they too gave out and left him just laying there, drained and fading, on the concrete.

"I...I know where your son is..." the words were hardly more than a breath in the air. He barely felt as if he had a body anymore, all he felt was pain and the empty numbness of his sapped strength. His eyes fluttered, darkness beginning to form at the corners of his vision. Phantom was going, going, and time seemed to stretch out...

He flinched as Jack and Maddie rushed to where he was laying, hoping not to be struck again or grabbed or moved...he focused on the faces of his parents, seeing their worried, hopeful, frantic expressions bearing down on his broken body with anticipation of his answer, "Where?" Maddie asked tightly, staring down at him. He twitched very slightly as her hand grabbed his shoulder, laying over exposed pale skin where the suit had ripped in that area.

He hardly heard her inquiry, he was going numb, icy hot pricklings assaulting his skin with gradually increasing severity. He didn't even feel the rain anymore, or hear it. His parents images were wobbling in and out of focus, his eyes falling. He felt his mother shake his shoulder roughly, desperately, making him cringe in pain, "Don't you dare pass out now, Phantom. _Where is our Danny?"_

The halfa tried to force the words out, but they kept sticking in his throat, his consciousness slipping with each second. The weight of it was crushing, the burns and aches of all of his wounds dimming to dull fire.

Another shake, his mother's voice came again, sounding faraway and as if it were coming through several layers of cotton, "_Dammit, stay with me Phantom, where is Danny?! wake up!"_

He was just about gone, the reply getting lost before it was ever spoken. Before everything around him faded into the void, he breathed out the remains of the truth he tried to speak,

_"Mom...Dad..."_

There was a bright flash of light that lit up the dark alley, and then a heavy, blissful darkness.

* * *

Maddie and Jack froze as the barely audible breath left the ghost boy, carrying the all too familiar words

..._Mom...Dad..._

Why would he...

Before the thought had ever finished processing in Maddie's mind, a bright light illuminated the clearing, casting a bluish white radiance against the dingy alley walls. A halo of light had formed around the ghost's center, slowly dividing into two. One ring swiftly traveled up the length of Phantom's body while the other traveled down his legs. Where the rings had parted, a new form was revealed. Torn and stained black and silver suit turned to a white and red T-shirt and jeans. White boots turned to sneakers, white hair going raven black. The rings faded, leaving not Phantom lying in the alley,

But Danny.

Their Danny.

His shirt was still stained with green ectoplasm, now blossoming with crimson that mingled with the green fluid in a morbid Christmas-y colored display. His chest still moved with breath, but it was weak and uneven. He looked like an image of death, all of a sudden, laying motionless and silent and stained in blood.

Maddie covered her mouth in shock, her eyes widening as she struggled to process what had just happened.

Phatom-the ghost they hated bitterly and relentlessly-he had..had just turned into Danny. Phantom was Danny.

Danny was the ghost they had threatened time and time again to destroy, to tear apart, to do horrible things to...

_They had sworn to kill their own son._

_They almost had..._

Maddie screamed involuntarily, gathering the injured boy in her arms and holding him in a tight grip. Her tears fell freely, hitting the boy who was already rain-soaked. Jack held her and his battered son as well, absolutely at a loss for words. The only audible sounds in the late night air was the persistent sound of falling rain and the quiet sobs of a mother over the child she had been so inclined to destroy but a few minutes ago.

Not much time had passed, but the moment seemed to have stretched on for hours, Jack finally roused his wife from her grief, "Mads, we have to get him back home, fast...he's bleeding again..." he told her, eyeing the growing splotch of red that soaked through the unconscious boy's shirt. Maddie followed his gaze, her eyes caught by the darkening spot on the left side of his forehead from where her pistol had made physical contact. Her breath hitched miserably, almost trying to deny that the ugly mark was her doing.

Maddie raised her head, tear tracks visible under her eyes and tears still flowing. She nodded tightly, but looked reluctant to let go of Danny. Jack gently moved her hands away so he could lift his son. Once they gathered him, and the thermos that was nearly left abandoned near the alley wall from before, they ran for home, desperately hoping to make it there before their son succumbed to his injuries...

_Christ...we almost killed him...we almost killed our own son..._


	4. Chapter 4

_**Aaagh, screwed up something with the chapter the first time that i didn't notice DX**_

_**Reposting it fixed now...**_

* * *

The rainfall showed no signs of possibly lightening up. If anything, it seemed to fall harder, pounding the windowpanes and clouding it with icy droplets.

Jazz eyed the wall clock nervously, and 1:37AM jumped back at her. Her parents had been gone for a little over an hour, and Danny was meant to be back around three hours ago.

She tried to focus on the book she was reading, but none of the information registered, leaving her to stare absently at pages of Times New Roman font. She couldn't help but believe something awful happened, something that would prevent Danny from coming home in some way, and might possibly be subduing her parents as well.

She fought the urge to venture into the dark, stormy night to seek out her parents and missing brother, forcing herself to obey her parent's command and to stay in case Danny had returned home.

_Be okay, little brother..._

* * *

The Fentonworks at last loomed in front of them, a beacon of safety in the stormy darkness of the night. Wasting no time, Maddie headed for the door and threw it open, a grumble of thunder sounding as she did so.

She saw Jazz perk up from where she was reading on the couch, staring at them with shock and inquisition. Jack bundled in after her, bearing a bloodied and unconscious Danny in his arms. Jazz's eyes fell on her brother, and she practically threw the book she bore down and rushed toward him, "Danny!" she cried, staring at the wound-ridden teen with panic.

Her parents passed her, laying the injured boy on the couch where Jazz had been sitting moments ago. Maddie pulled up his shirt, revealing the ugly gash that marred his torso. She saw Jazz cover her mouth in anguish, and Jack had already left the room to find medicinal supplies.

"M-Mom, what happened?!" Jazz cried, kneeling next to her mother beside the couch, "Who did this?!"

Maddie looked at her daughter with a moment of hesitation. She was unaware of the extent of Jazz's knowledge on the situation, and believed the girl must be assuming some thug on the streets had gotten him. She didn't want to come out then and there and tell her daughter that her little brother was...was _half-ghost..._Not yet...

The ghost hunter shook her head, quietly moving to pull the stained shirt off of her son while shifting him as minimally as possible, "He...he was...he was like that when we found him...we don't know what happened..." It was technically the truth, as they had indeed found Phanto-...their son...injured in such a way. The memory of it was clear, and yet somehow foggy, as if the cruel fascination she had felt upon discovering the injured ghost was an entirely separate event from the moment she had held her wounded son, sobbing into the night.

Jazz shook her head, either in denial or sorrow of the limp boy that lay motionless beside them. Tears were shining in the sixteen-year-old's eyes but didn't fall, and Maddie was surprised to detect almost a look of...of expectancy that replaced her shock...almost as if she had been expecting something like this to happen.

Jazz looked like she was about to say something, before Jack appeared with a box of supplies. Jazz moved out of the way and silently watched as her parents began tending to her injured brother.

* * *

...

2:42AM

Jazz was rather glad that it was at least a non-school night. With the dwindling hours of sleep she was going to get, if she was going to sleep at all, it was a little relieving to know there wouldn't be a school day to struggle tiredly through.

The redhead had been sitting on the floor behind her parents, unable to see her scrawny brother laying on the couch from behind her parent's bodies. They had finished sanitizing and binding the wound a while ago, but hadn't moved from his side for a moment. They hadn't spoken, leaving them in silence for quite some time.

Shaking her head, Jazz wondered how Danny would get himself out of this one. The struggle to hide his ghost powers had resulted in many close calls, unexplainable scrapes and bruises, frequent tardies and absences, but this seemed like the worst of them all. She wasn't sure how he could have possibly survived as long as he did as a human with that slash, but Jazz hadn't seen what her parents had seen, and was unable to deduce anything from the situation.

Her parents seemed...off...tonight...besides the fact that they had just brought home their son who had been bleeding out somewhere. They looked troubled, burdened, alongside the worry and concern and fear for Danny. Jazz very much wished she could have been there, as the looks her parents were trading with each other occasionally was unnerving.

She jumped when she heard her voice called softly, and the teenager silently crawled toward them on the floor to kneel next to them.

She caught sight of Danny, who was now cocooned in several layers of blankets and sheets, several pillows holding up his head. He was still serenely asleep, unmoving except for an occasional twitch or tic in his sleep. She bit her lip in sympathy, before turning back toward her mother, "Is he going to be okay, Mom?"

Maddie sighed tiredly, running a hand through her red hair absently, "I...I believe so, Jazz..." she whispered, giving Danny's sleeping form a long, forlorn look.

"What happened out there?" Jazz asked, and Maddie paused,

"We...found him in an alley and he was already hurt..." she told her, but Jazz frowned,

"No, Mom. _What happened? _You and Dad look like it was...I don't know...something more than that." she pressed.

Maddie shook her head, "We had just found our child bleeding to death in some alley! You'd think..." she trailed off, and Jazz kept steadily staring at her. She sighed silently, casting her father a look from over her head, "J-Jasmine...we need to tell you something..."

Jazz nodded silently, watching as her mom silently tried to sort out what words to use. She had a feeling deep down, she knew what her mom was about to tell her. And if that was what she was really going to say, she wondered if she should play along or admit her knowledge as well.

And it came:

"Jazz...what we found in the alley...it was that ghost boy, Phantom..."

Jazz blinked, now for sure knowing where this was headed. She had almost wished it really hadn't been what she was thinking of, and yet...

"He was injured...and...we..." she paused, and Jazz saw her mother struggling with the words, as if she was trying not to admit something, "we tried to get him to tell us if he knew where Danny was and..."

"Danny turned back into a human?"

Maddie blinked, staring at her daughter. Jazz adverted her gaze, shifting a bit nervously. She knew next would come a barrage of questions, confusion, guilt maybe...Jazz hoped she would have the strength to deal with it, to try and bring her parents into understanding.

"How did you...Jazz, do you know something about this?" Her mother's voice hardened, almost urgently, and she moved a few paces back somewhat awkwardly. She gave a small nod, looking at the bemused and agitated parents expressions anxiously.

"Well why didn't you ever tell us!" Jack questioned her, "Our own son, a ghost!"

"_Half-_ghost..." Jazz corrected them nervously, before pausing to harden her own voice. _They know now, and I can't be nervous telling them...this..._she sighed, _this was going to happen sooner or later._

"Jasmine, what happened to him?" her father prompted again, and Jazz looked up to meet their gaze,

"A lab accident. He told me about it awhile back..." she tried not to be unnerved by her parents growing horrified expressions as she implied they had somehow helped cause this, "When the Ghost Portal started working all of a sudden that one day, it was because Danny went inside and turned it on. But it blasted him before he could get out and..." she trailed off, looking meaningfully at her brother as an end to her sentence.

Her parents sat in silence for a strangely long few minutes, before her mother's miserable voice sounded, "The portal...we..." she murmured, "But why didn't he tell us...?"

Jazz shrugged, keeping a steadiness in her voice and her gaze, "I guess with two parents who can talk about nothing but hunting ghosts, dissecting ghosts, destroying ghosts..." the comment had come off a bit more cruel than she intended, but kept going, "I guess it's not that hard to guess why he's been hiding it from you all this time."

Her parents were shocked into silence again, and Jazz noticed the thermos that they had brought in and left forgotten on the floor by the couch. She leaned forward to pick it up, gazing at it in a similar manner as Maddie had done earlier that night. She placed it down between the three of them, "That probably has ghosts in it, we'll need to empty it into the Ghost Portal sometime soon." she commented, looking back up at her parents steadily.

Maddie and Jack exchanged glances, "So...he really had been catching ghosts...?" Jack said flatly, and Jazz nodded. She saw him look back toward Danny, a look of guilt and sorrow etched on his expression, and even the faintest look of pride.

"Is that what he's been doing all this time?" Maddie prompted her, "He's been hunting ghosts too?"

Jazz nodded, "All he's been trying to do was keep Amity Park safe from the ghosts that escape the Ghost Zone, all this time." she told them seriously, "Even when most of the town hated him and he was constantly being hunted-" she saw her parents flinch at that, "He still did it."

Maddie nodded slowly, "Th-that would explain..." she trailed off, giving the sleeping boy another long and pained look before she leaned forward and held him in her arms again. Jazz heard the soft sounds of crying, and Jack moved to put an arm around his wife's shoulder.

Jazz sighed, backing up a little more to give them some space.

There.

The secret was out.

She felt a bit guilty at how she had been a bit harsh with her words, and had probably sent her parents into emotional turmoil for the next few hours...or longer. She had sort of wished that if the secret had to come out one day, it wouldn't have been like this. She remembered what her mother had said when she had given her rendition of finding her brother as a ghost in the alley, and frowned. She knew that conflict probably went on, it wasn't as simple as just 'asking him if they knew where Danny was.' She knew there had probably been some threats issued, guns poised, but hopefully not fired, yelling and interrogation...she understood why they were in such shambles now, besides the fact that they were now aware that the 'ghost-punk' they had been holding at gunpoint and targeting for all this time, was in fact, their son.

She felt bad. She felt they rightfully deserved to feel remorse for their actions and their lack of understanding that had kept the secret buried, but she still felt bad.

Perhaps, if they had known from the beginning, things wouldn't be so damaged as they were now.

And then there was still the matter of Danny handling the matter and the revelation himself when he woke up, no doubt he would be troubled by the whole thing as well.

Jazz sighed, rising to her feet quietly as she decided to leave her parents be for awhile. Would things be better in the morning? She could only hope.

* * *

**_AN: Ack, I meant to make this the last chapter but it's going a bit too long and not quite resolved yet..._**

**_So maybe I'll wrap this up with an epilogue._**

**_Till then~_**

**_-RG_**


	5. Chapter 5

_Conclusion._

Danny had been staring at the ceiling of the daylight-flooded room for nearly two minutes before realizing where he was.

It felt like it had all gone by too quick, or maybe it had dragged on forever. A faded and fuzzy memory of laying on cold concrete came to mind, and he tried to pick through the details of the image to remember exactly what happened. Unable to grasp the reminiscence of the previous events, he simply let it go and let his blue gaze travel the room.

A dull soreness plagued his body, and tiredness weighed him down, but it felt nowhere near the level it had been the previous night, which now felt more like an unpleasant memory now that his wound had significantly stopped hurting.

What had happened last night though?

The alley, his parents...

He was Phantom.

Danny bit his lip nervously and raised a hand to his face. No white glove, just a human hand. He had changed back.

When had he changed back?

The boy gingerly lowered his hand to his left side, feeling bandages under his touch and putting pressure on the wound caused a sharp sting of pain. He pulled his arm away, laying both hands on top of his chest.

This was the living room, and it was morning. He wasn't sure what time though, he hadn't been aware of the time all night. Outside the window, he could make out pieces of bright blue obscured by straggly white-gray clouds. The rain had stopped, leaving residual raindrops still clinging to the windowpanes.

He tried to sit up, gently and slowly doing so as it hurt to move too much. Wincing, he managed to set himself into a more upright position, gazing around the room once again.

He heard something shifting in the kitchen, and he saw his mom poke her head into the room. She gave him a small smile but Danny could see the rather troubled look in her expression, still.

She came into the room, looking a bit dazed as she did, and quietly sat down on the couch near him. She placed a hand gently on his arm, still smilin, "How're you feeling sweetie?" she asked softly, not taking her eyes off him.

Danny shifted a bit under her gaze, his hand grazing the bandages again, which he could see in the light that blood had soaked through a little. He nodded, "Y-yeah, fine..." he mumbled, self-consciously pulling the blankets over his body to hide the wound.

Maddie only nodded, giving a sad look at her hand that was now resting on the couch next to her. She looked like she was considering what to say next, but Danny spoke for her, "M-Mom...did..." he paused, looking away from her, "Was...I in an alley...last night...?"

He didn't look at her, but could sense her probably frowning with thought. He heard steps coming down the stairs, heralding his father who paused when their gazes met.

The two parents exchanged nervous glances before meeting each other halfway, directly facing Danny on the couch.

Still not having his question answered, Danny restated it to them, "Mom, Dad, I was outside last night, wasn't I...?"

They didn't answer him, and after a seemingly long pause, Danny lowered his head and looked away, "You know...don't you...?"

He knew, he just knew that's what had happened. It was obvious, he had been found and as Phantom and awoken and Fenton, luckily not wasted by his parents' weaponry at the time. But what must they think? Were they looking at him like his parents would look at their son,

Or were they looking at him like his parents would look at a freak?

A freak who was half a loathsome creature to the two, and half their beloved son.

"Son..."

Danny raised his head a little, still not meeting their gazes.

"Danny..."

He sighed silently and looked up toward them in time to see his mother close in and wrap her arms around him, gently as to not aggravate the injury. He blinked, somewhat confused and looked toward his father, who was smiling at him.

"I...don't understand..." Danny muttered, adverting his gaze from them, "I'm...I'm that awful Phantom ghost, and...and I _lied _to you..." he shook his head, "I would have kept lying too..."

He felt his mother's embrace tighten, "Of course you would have..." he was shocked to hear the sob in it, once again, "We hunted you. We _hurt _you. And you...you never really did anything wrong...but we never listened..."

Danny blinked, staring blankly at the ground.

Was this really happening?

In every scenario in his mind in the past, he imagined the news of his secret going over rather poorly, as to be expected. He imagined being scorned, turned away, and disapproved of. Or he imagined being rushed at with machines and dissection devices intended for experiments or some method of removing his ghost self. Or even just being blasted on the spot. _No respectable Fenton keeps a filthy ghost under their roof! _He imagined them saying. He shuddered at how much he believed it would happen.

But it wasn't.

It wasn't happening.

They weren't aiming a gun at his head, they weren't shunning him, they weren't strapping him down and preparing to experiment on him.

He was in his mother's arms. She was crying, his parents were apologizing.

He felt himself begin shaking.

_They're sorry?_

_They're sorry..._

_They're not blasting me..._

_They're sorry..._

He felt his own arms wrap around his mother's body, burying his face in her shoulder, "I'm sorry guys..." he murmured into it, "I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, son..." Jack said, "All this time all we could talk about were all the ways we could obliterate ghosts, no wonder you kept this to yourself." The man sighed, and straightened up a little bit with a small smile, "But to think, my son, a ghost hunter just like his old man!"

Danny was at a loss for words, still disbelieving that this was happening. Of all the dreadful things he thought would happen during the ordeal in the rainy alley, nothing quite felt more rejuvenating than this...

His mother pulled away, drawing her fingers gently through his ruffled hair. Danny gave her a small smile.

"Say, uh...son." Jack began, looking a bit unsure, "Could you maybe...show us how you...turn into that ghost half of yours?"

Danny paused, looking a bit worriedly at his parents, "You...want me to change?"

Maddie stood up, standing next to Jack and tried to send him a reassuring smile. Jack awkwardly scratched the back of his head, "Well uh, I guess if you can't now...I just wanted to get a new, fresh look at you...since you aren't...well..." he cleared his throat, looking a bit flustered with his words.

Danny chuckled a little, and rose to his feet slowly. His mother tensed, as if she expected him to feel pain from the movement on his injury, but relaxed when she decided he was steady.

Danny looked away somewhat bashfully, murmuring under his breath, "Going ghost..." before a halo appeared around his waist, just like it had the previous night. It split, one halo racing up and the other racing down, revealing the same white-haired, black-suited ghost from the night before. Phantom. Danny Phantom.

His parents watched, frozen as their son transformed into the being they had hounded and harassed so many time...It really was him. Phantom and Danny had always been the same person.

Danny watched his mother draw close again, slowly, as if taking in his image for the first time. She reached out a hand to touch his face gently, and Danny gave her a small, shy and awkward smile. He heard his mom sigh softly, "Why have I never seen it before...? My boy..."

She suddenly leaned forward to hug him, "I'm so sorry Danny...We're sorry..." she cried, holding him in practically an iron grip. His father approached as well, embracing his ghostly son and wife.

* * *

Jazz came down the stairs, yawning quietly into her hand. She had managed to get at least a few hours of sleep, and had realized with one look at her clock that she had overslept, a rare occurrence for her. The time had read as 10:52AM, much later than she had anticipated wanting to awaken.

The redhead treaded down the stairs, wondering briefly if her parents had awoken yet and if Danny had regained consciousness. She hardly had to wonder long, as she turned her head and saw three figures held in mutual embrace in the living room. Her parents and her ghost brother, all joined in a deep and loving embrace.

Jazz smiled, glad that things had finally seemed to play out in a peaceful way, without her interference. Although, she still pictured having to remind her parents to keep the ghost inventions away from Danny now, and remember what he was doing every time he missed curfew.

Things were definitely looking up.

And she was glad.

* * *

**_Yeeahhh it's done~_**

**_I didn't think i would manage typing an entire five-chaptered story over two days though, but I guess I was really motivated._**

**_ugh i hope the ending wasn't too cheesy, but i just felt it needed to end on a happy note._**

**_Well then..._**

**_Reviews and such much appreciated, and thanks for reading my little story. ^^_**

**_-RG_**


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